Two months ago this weekend, many of Vermont’s top Republicans were attending the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Tampa as Tropical Storm Isaac hovered nearby.

Back in Vermont, a wealthy, publicity-shy benefactor of Republican causes was quietly hatching what would soon become a potent new political force in Vermont.

On Aug. 27, records show, Lenore Broughton wrote a $100,000 check out to Vermonters First, a political action committee she had just created.

Broughton followed that up with a $35,500 check a week later. A day after that, the PAC spent $98,200 of the money buying “media placement” services from Target Enterprises, a Republican-friendly “media placement” firm in Sherman Oaks, Ca.

Tayt Brooks, who had just been elected chairman of the Franklin County Republican Committee, was quickly hired to be the PAC’s treasurer.

“Tayt just said another opportunity had come up,” recalled Linda Kirker, a longtime Franklin County Republican activist. “He said it prohibited him from doing anything with the party or any candidate.”

A lot has happened in two months. According to an Oct. 15 campaign finance report on file with the elections division of the Secretary of State’s office in Montpelier, Vermonters First has raised $684,861 — almost all of it Broughton’s money — and spent $561,404.

The money has financed an avalanche of ads and direct mail items supporting GOP legislative candidates around the state and, in particular, state treasurer candidate Wendy Wilton of Rutland.

The amount of money Broughton has invested in her super PAC is unprecedented. If Vermonters First only spends the money Broughton has put into it as of Oct. 15, it will go down as the largest PAC player in Vermont history.

It could also end up changing the course of the Vermont Republican Party, depending on how things turn out on Election Day.

The funny thing is, hardly anybody saw it coming.

“I remember speaking to Lenore just prior to the convention,” said Jay Shepard of Essex Junction, a longtime state GOP activist and now a Republican National Committeeman.

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“She gave me no indication she was going to do this,” Shepard said. “After the convention I had a quick conversation with her about giving money to the state party and she said ‘Well, I’ve got some other plans in mind.’”

Broughton's background

To a person, people who know Broughton say she is a generous person.

“She is wonderfully kind,” said John McClaughry, head of the conservative Ethan Allen Institute and a former aide to President Ronald Reagan. “”She believes in America and she believes in American values.”

Broughton, 74, lives at a well-cared-for but unassuming home on Henry Street in Burlington. She politely declined to be interviewed for this story last week.

“We’ve decided I won’t do any interviews,” she said through the screen door on a breezy Friday morning. She also declined to be photographed.

Broughton referred questions about Vermonters First to Brooks, the PAC’s treasurer who has also served as its spokesman. Brooks, however, did not respond to six different telephone and email requests for an interview.

Broughton’s exact wealth is unknown. Much of her money is inherited; her grandfather served as president of U.S. Gypsum and Montgomery Ward. She is the director of The Broughton Fund, a Chicago-based charity and is the former wife of T. Alan Broughton, a retired English professor at the University of Vermont of Vermont.

Behind the scenes, Broughton has been a benefactor of a number of causes. They range from support for families of Vermont National Guard members deployed to Afghanistan to a program to warn Vermonters about the dangers or radical Islam, scholarships for kids attending religious or alternative schools, and the creation of True North Radio, a conservative radio talk show that airs on WDEV.

“I actually met Lenore when she was a speech therapist in Starksboro,” McClaughry said. “She was interested in school choice and she led a project to create a database for independent schools in Vermont.”

Broughton’s interest in Republican politics runs deep. Since 2000, she has given $206,400 to 56 Republican U.S. Senate and House candidates around the country and to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and John McCain. Broughton has also contributed $306,500 to various state and national GOP organizations.

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Of the 56 candidates nationally that she supported, just 22 won their races and some of her candidate choices involved strongly conservative or Tea Party endorsed candidates.

In Vermont, a review of campaign finance records show she’s given money to 2012 gubernatorial hopeful Randy Brock, to the gubernatorial campaigns of former Gov. Jim Douglas, former Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie , and to Kurt Wright in his unsuccessful 2012 bid for mayor of Burlington.

Enter Vermonters First

Vermonters First, however, marks the first time Broughton has given money to a partisan political organization of her own creation.

Shepard said Broughton knew the step she was taking would cost her some of her privacy. “She told me ‘The thing I worry about is people will know a lot more about me,’” he said. “She knew it was coming.”

As the founder and prime funder of Vermonters First, her name comes up whenever the PAC gets attacked by the Vermont Democratic Party. Earlier this month, her home was the site of a protest by supporters of universal health care.

Not all Republicans have embraced Vermonters First. As a PAC, it can produce ads that support a candidate but it does so at the direction of Broughton and Brooks, who by law are not allowed to coordinate their activities with either the party or the candidates.

“I said at one point that I did not welcome it,” said Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex/Orleans, who was the subject of some early ads by Vermonters First, but is no longer mentioned in its ads.

Illuzzi, who also said he recently decided to “un-endorse” Romney for president, said he had no advance knowledge that Vermonters First would be running ads on his behalf.

“I would have done it differently, at least make it more positive,” he said.

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Wilton, the GOP treasurer candidate, said she welcomed the help from Vermonters First, but said she has to remain focused on her race, not what the PAC might be doing on her behalf.

“The thing about a super PAC is you can’t know what it is going to do,” Wilton said. “It’s like a 10-foot pole attached to a 10-foot pole. You have no control over it.”

Shepard, the GOP national committeeman, said he has mixed feelings about the addition of Vermonters First to the Republican political landscape.

“If it works, if the people it supports do well, it will help the party,” he said. “Maybe it’ll convince other people who are Republicans and have money to believe they can make a difference, too.”

The flip side of that, said McClaughry, is that a PAC draws money and attention away from the necessary party building that the Vermont GOP needs to undertake.

“If it was left to me, I’d prefer to see a competitive party system ... than a dozen or 20 or 30 super PACs throwing bombs at each other,” he said. “The Vermont Republican Party right now is hanging on by a thread.”